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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Alan McKinlay, Dr Ewan MackenzieORCiD, Professor Stephen Procter
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Objective: This paper examines the experiences, perspectives, and employment destinations of highly skilled aerospace engineers who were subject to redundancy in 2020-21. The focus is upon economic security and workers’ voice, positioning these as vital aspects of a Just Transition. The project explored worker perspectives on the redundancy process, the trade union, working culture, change and loss, and possibilities for a just transition to low carbon employment. Method: The paper draws on research into the closure of the Rolls Royce Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MR&O) facility at Inchinnan, Scotland in late 2020, during which around 700 jobs were lost. The research team worked with trade union officials to distribute a survey that was answered by 172 members subject to the severance process. Subsequently, 41 in-depth follow up interviews were undertaken with survey respondents, relevant union officials, and former trade union activists. The research team explored how the concept of a Just Transition (Just Transitions Commission, 2021) aligned with the experiences of these workers: as those displaced by a shift out of high carbon industry. We also explored deskilling, labour market failure, and the resulting loss of intergenerational knowledge and skills. Results and Conclusions: Our findings draw attention to the barriers workers faced in attempting to transfer to the renewables sector due to a lack of available opportunities, and despite undertaking appropriate training. International supply chains from state-sponsored manufacturers typically dominate supply chains in renewable energy: an important factor in this case and in understanding the global dynamics of employment in a just transition more generally (Gibbs, 2021). The majority of workers who lost their jobs were also unable to find alternative employment that matched, or enhanced, their engineering skills. The study also reveals how employment for these highly skilled engineers provided a meaningful sense of voice, security, and community. The loss of intergenerational knowledge and skills arising from the closure was experienced as a profound and irreplaceable loss, both practically and psychologically. This points to the deeper and longer-term effects of industrial change on individuals, occupations and communities. We highlight the importance of understanding the social experience of industrial change, and deindustrialisation (Strangleman, 2016), as principal and historically sensitive considerations in a Just Transition. The paper argues that by including workers and communities in debates about their future, where their economic security might be protected, a transition to low carbon employment can be less harmful. References Gibbs, E. (2021b) Scotland’s Faltering Green Industrial Revolution, The Political Quarterly, 92(1). Just Transition Commission (2021) Just Transition Commission: A National Mission for a fairer, greener Scotland. Edinburgh: Government, S. [Online]. Available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/transition-commission-national-mission-fairer-greener-scotland/ Strangleman, T. (2017) Deindustrialisation and the Historical Sociological Imagination: Making Sense of Work and Industrial Change, Sociology, 51(2), 446-482
Author(s): McKinlay A, Philips J, Mackenzie E, Gibbs E, Procter S, McNulty D
Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)
Publication status: Published
Conference Name: The 13th European Regional Congress of the International Labour and Employment Relations Association (ILERA)
Year of Conference: 2022
Acceptance date: 09/05/2022
Publisher: International Labour and Employment Relations Association
URL: https://www.ileraeurope22.com/_files/ugd/f347a0_ef7d3baee7a4492f93a55418fd5fa373.pdf
